Ride-hailing, texting bills seem to be stalled as legislative session heads into final three weeks
A lot can happen in the final three weeks of a Texas legislative session.
But not much has been resolved in the session’s first 17 weeks, at least as it applies to transportation. Many a lawmaker’s (and lobbyist’s) precious ideas — primarily because of what has evolved into a staring match between leaders of the Texas House and Senate — are likely to expire in the next 21 days.
Here’s what has happened so far with the more important transportation legislation (or, in some cases, bills of localized Central Texas interest), and a look at their remaining prospects:
Statewide ride-hailing service rules. House Bill 100, by Rep. Chris Paddie, R-Marshall, made it through the House on April 20 (laden with a fanciful snippet of language striving to define “sex”). But Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican who as the Senate’s presiding officer has the power to assign bills to committee, hasn’t done so with this one in the two weeks it has graced his inbox. Meanwhile, Senate Bill 361, from Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, passed through the Transportation Committee back in March, but hasn’t been ushered to the Senate floor.
I sought clues last week what
might be stalling these bills, which would override local ordinances regulating ride-hailing (like, for instance, Austin’s rules, which Uber and Lyft spent more than $10 million trying to overturn). But as the saying goes, thems that say don’t know, and thems that know ain’t saying.
What I was told by senators last week was that something will pass in this regard, that there is too much momentum (and lobbying muscle) behind the concept of neutering local ride-hailing regulations for it to simply flame out. The Paddie and Nichols bills take markedly different approaches — Nichols’ bill lays out statewide requirements but, unlike Paddie’s measure, doesn’t put the industry under the oversight of a specific state agency — so that distinction could be causing the delay.
I asked Patrick’s office for clarity on this last week, but got no response. Texting-while-driving ban. This is the real head-shaker. The Senate has become the main arena for this long-sought legislation during the past couple of sessions, with primary sponsor Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, looking to gather 19 supporters in the 31-member chamber. That’s the threshold under Senate rules to bring a bill up for debate and voting. Except when it isn’t.
Zaffirini has 20 votes secured for House Bill 62, which was easily passed by the House on March 20. And she had earlier passed her identical version, Senate Bill 31, through the Senate State Affairs Committee on a 6-3 vote. So, done deal to pass HB 62, authored by Republican and former House speaker Tom Craddick, right?
Wrong. Patrick hasn’t referred HB 62 to a committee, and SB 31 hasn’t come to the Senate floor for a vote. Patrick controls that as well.
Right now, Zaffirini’s 20 votes include all 11 Senate Democrats and nine of the 20 Republicans. Pass it that way and some could perceive that Democrats hold the senatorial reins, if only for those magic 30 seconds when the vote occurs. So Zaffirini might have to get, for appearances’ sake, 12 Republicans on board.
There’s a similar number hanging out there: 13. That’s how many people died March 29 when a young man, who survived and later told witnesses that he had been texting while he was driving, plowed his pickup head-on into a church van carrying seniors from New Braunfels. TxDOT sunset. Senate Bill 312, a must-pass bill to keep the lights on at the Texas Department of Transportation, has cleared the Senate and, as of Tuesday, a House committee. The bill, at this point, is pretty mundane from a public point of view, with a long list of requirements related to TxDOT’s planning process and other functions. But a similar bill several years ago, when TxDOT was under sunset review, ended up being what lawmakers called a “Christmas tree,” a vehicle onto
which desperate lawmakers can festoon dying bills through amendment. So this one is worth watching more closely in the next three weeks. TxDOT funding .At one point, it looked like the agency might lose as much as $2.5 billion of its two-year funding as budget writers tried to fill a big gap in general state spending. House and Senate budget writers still are haggling over the final biennial spending bill, and there’s even talk that a special session might be required to break the jam. But it no longer appears that TxDOT funding is in jeopardy.
Toll roads. Despite a lot of tough talk, the crackdown on toll roads by more conservative lawmakers has had mixed results. Bills in the House and Senate to make local toll authorities (such as the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority) pay back TxDOT grants out of toll revenue have failed to move out of the committees assigned to hear them. Another bill that seemingly could have blocked TxDOT from building projects like the U.S. 290 East tollway in Austin, where toll lanes are built on top of an existing highway and matching free lanes are put alongside, no longer troubles TxDOT officials.
But highway officials were dismayed Friday when House Bill 2861, carried by toll supporter Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, died an early death on the House floor. And the vote wasn’t close. That bill would have authorized TxDOT and local toll agencies to build up to 18 more highway projects using “comprehensive development agreements.” Those deals come in many flavors, some in the vanilla area. But the menu included the sort of long-term leases between TxDOT and private companies used on the bankrupt Texas 130 tollway southeast of Austin, a toxic talking point.
Fatally toxic, it turned out.
Other stuff? House Bill 141 to take tolls off a lightly used road near Laredo was passed by a House committee and is on the House floor calendar for Tuesday. But its prospects are iffy at this late point. And a bill from Austin’s Democratic Sen. Kirk Watson to cut in half fees from the widely despised Driver Responsibility Program hasn’t moved out of committee after an April 5 hearing.
Senate legislation to bar cities from issuing tickets to people for running traffic lights based only on photos taken at the intersection was passed by the Senate on March 30. But the bill hasn’t been assigned to a House committee. No green light there, in other words.
One interesting late mover: Senate Bill 1588, by Sen. Don Huffines, R-Dallas. This bill would eliminate vehicle safety inspections for the state’s 23 million noncommercial vehicles, something the state has been doing since 1951. With bipartisan support, the bill (which wouldn’t affect emissions inspections required in 17 counties, including Travis and Williamson) was passed by the Senate 27-4 Thursday. That mix of support could give it a better chance in the House, even with rapidly approaching deadlines in that chamber to pass bills from the Senate.